Soviet Log 53
The One With Trans-Dimensional Distress Beacons and Hot Springs We picked up the action trapped in a replica St. Basil's cathedral in an interstitial worm dimension. We had just defeated some nasty Infected after retrieving the brave explorer, Zheng He, from his 'banish' camp. The first order of business was to see to the wounds of our comrades. Eva was still bleeding out badly in quite an impressive pool of blood that covered most of the floor. Roq showed little remorse but efficiently set about staunching her *non-lunar* flows. Mei Lynn was quiet but seemed ok after her turn at healing. While that was going on, Katya planted a pressure-sensitive charge in the small cavern opening leading to the rest of the Infected. She did this in case they sensed our presence since we had little hope of holding out against more than a dozen or so if they chose to attack. The danger was that the sounds of the explosion would draw more but if the tunnel collapsed it would be worth it. We returned to the fountain room with our NPC friends who were happy to see us after hearing the vicious sounds of combat outside. We filled them in on events and with some insights from Zhang Hee and others all came to the conclusion that we were trapped in a sub-dimensional trap of Hans' elaborate design/construction. Eva pointed out that it was strange that it was a replica for St. Basil's but agreed that it might just be a way to lure us in since we didn't even know we had dimensionally travelled until we'd already passed through the outer doorway. With a sample of the Worm Crystal Salvage *we* (collective 'we' since many of us happily let the 'science monkeys' run with it) deduced that it had extra-dimensional properties that could be used to build a transmitter that might be heard by others. We wanted to send a message to Rasputin but without location awareness it was deemed impossible. Instead, our plan was to build a general broadcast beacon that might be picked up by a receptive being like Rasputin or even one of the epic game players. With a rough plan in place we took some time to heal our grievous wounds and prepare. While getting cured by Lilyana, Eva did some pure science stuff with the crystals and Beacon to lay the groundwork for things. Lilyana also cured Mei Lynn and Liesolette. Roq used her superior medical skills to heal Katya's wound while Kat interrogated (in a nice way) Zhang Hee to find holes in his story. Her Read Aura and Interrogation all only served to back up his story of being a Military-focused explorer (2nd-tier Military gate, first-tier Academic). Katya was still suspicious but without evidence began to reluctantly believe his story. In order to make the Beacon possible we needed more Worm Crystals which meant risking the Infected tunnels again. Eva volunteered to send the Fembot since it was disposable and could make a nano-wall for cover. Roq was going to work on the Beacon by absorbing Eva's findings (*not* to be confused with 'checking her work') and using what she learned to begin construction. Katya wanted to learn more about the world we were in so volunteered to scout outside the cathedral doors in the great darkness beyond. Eva's Fembot mining went well thanks to her quick thinking when the Infected suddenly showed up. Her nano-wall kept them away while her Fembot stealthily retrieved a large quantity of crystals. Good thing, too, since Katya and Cyta were far up the exterior 'totally not cone shaped' cylindrical cavern wall from which the cathedral replica was built. At the top was a large crystal vein that showed obvious traces (nat 20 Tracking) of being mined in a massive way. Hans and co. had been busy mining Worm Crystal for weeks before we arrived. A brief hope that they had left a 'service portal' behind was dashed when we found the empty platform where it used to be housed. Rocquette and Eva worked into the night on the Transmitter, but Eva's Communications Skill Check was not quite adequate to provide the single extra level of assistance Roc required to build the level 10 Transmitter. We slept and continued the work in the morning. Eva mined more Worm Crystal (from the safer vein found outside), Katya explored new Martial Arts Katas, and Roq worked on the Beacon combining knowledge of both Communications and Science. Finally, the Beacon was ready so we sent a short message asking for help. We would have liked to ask the Goat to help us but, apparently, he had rage quit after showing his junk to everyone so was no longer available. None of us were quite sure what to expect but what happened next was beyond our imaginations. For a moment, we were aware of the 'epic players' discussing our fate. We had a brief moment to make our Elder Sign Occult saves which allowed us all to grab one other NPC (Eva - Liesolette, Katya - Cyta, Roq - Lilyanna) as we felt reality slipping away. Zhang Hee thanked us for freeing him as he was whisked off somewhere else. We appeared to narrowly miss a complete reset of the whole Campaign, and instead found ourselves back at the Gulag where this chapter began. Thankfully, we had all our skills and equipment and the timestream seemed consistent with our own. Our distress beacon had been heard and we had been freed by an extra-planar power! It wasn't hard to sneak out of the Gulag without the watchful eye of the Twin Witch-Snipers so we slunk away toward the nearest ley line where Mei Lynn or Lilyanna could do their thing and get us back to Moscow. They needed some time to get the Ley Line transport ready so we all had two blocks to kill. This logger cannot remember what the others did due to the glorious mental imagery of Katya engaged in her scantily clad martial arts training montage. The scenery was fantastic - if you know what this logger means, (certainly better than watching Rocquette sticking sharp things in her eyes and ears at least!) Not all thought so, however, as Eva must have caught Liesolette's furtive glances which lead to questions on whether we had actually arrived at a 'bitchy-verse' version of our own reality. Unfortunately, her 'seeping porta-spa' did little to soothe Eva's mood. Thanks to the efforts of Mei and Lilyana, we stopped at the hover truck to manage inventories and then moved onto Moscow. Once in Moscow, we melted into the crowd using our NKVD Political Officer's Retinue disguises. We avoided notice or surveillance and found our way to Rasputin's secret under-river Resistance base. All of the familiar resistance NPCs were waiting happily to see us (Giacomo maybe a little 'too happy' if you ask this logger). Also, what's with Svetlana's stink eye toward Lilyanna - ouch! No sign of the Josie's, though - hopefully they are back on their plane where they also started out. Rasputin was shocked to hear our tale of extra-dimensional meddling as we laid out recent events. He shared that the Kremlin was in major lockdown and security forces were abuzz throughout the city. It seemed that not much had changed since we left - the Nazis were still running the show, but at least didn't seem to have undone our work at the three Cathedrals inside the Kremlin. We still need to complete Babba Yagga's ritual! That's where we called it. Oh, and after our weird semi-reset/rescue one of our eyes has become vaguely anime-shaped. Probably nothing to be concerned about. Rewards 11 Generic 1 Combat Kat 4 Random Points and 1 Benny